Stark County Fair Queen’s pie auction raises nearly $4,200

The 16th annual Stark County Fair Queen’s Pie Auction Monday raised $4,195.The event, held in conjunction with the Stark County Junior Fair’s championship livestock sale, helps cover expenses of the queen’s trip and wardrobe for the state pageant in Springfield in January. Twenty donated pies, along with cupcakes, homemade ice cream and fudge, were sold. The top bidder was Bryan Scott, owner of the Spoon River Bowl in Wyoming. Scott purchased the last pie, a peach pie baked by Wyoming resident Peg Gray, for $900. Gray works at the Spoon River Bowl. The second-highest sale was to Mike Rumbold of Rumbold and Kuhn Elevator, who purchased a chocolate caramel pecan mousse pie for $525. That pie was donated by former royalty (and sisters) Jennifer Smith and Sydney Wisnefski. Newly-crowned Miss Stark County Fair Taylor Endress sold her peanut butter pie to her grandfather, Jordan Elsasser, for $300. Under a longstanding tradition, the buyer of the pie made by the queen gets the honor of initiating the new queen with a whipped cream pie in the face. Taylor’s grandfather declined the privilege but turned the honor over to the new queen’s 3-year-old sister Jacey, who gladly obliged. Other top buyers included the State Bank of Toulon, Wyoming Veterinary Service, Lueking Livestock and Leezer Insurance Agency.